Lovers of the Galaxy, Book Two: Bounty Hunters of the Heart Read online

  He mounted his horse. Once both Melinda and Oshki were in their saddles, they resumed their trek into the foothills. The female’s surprise that they were intimate didn’t bother him; there were many races throughout the galaxies that didn’t believe in same-sex relationships, so he was used to the reactions. However, Melinda’s assumption that they were family members left him with an unsettling sensation in his gut. The truth reared its vicious head, but he shoved it aside to concentrate on the matter at hand.

  They crested a hill, and Oshki rode up to keep pace with him on the right and Melinda on the left. Miln sneaked glances at his partner. His long hair waved in the wind, his silver eyes trained straight ahead. Gulping, he willed his unease to go away. Had he fallen in lust and mistaken it for love? Was it possible his mate suffered the same, which was why he seemed to be giving up on their relationship?

  As the day wore on, questions and misgivings whirled and gyrated in his mind.

  Toward early evening, Melinda halted at the base of a mountain. She pointed up a faint wagon trail.

  “There’s a village about a mile up that road,” she said. “The tracks we’ve been following go there. I think we should wait until nightfall before we go any farther.”

  “Agreed.” He dismounted and led his steed to a bush where he tied the ends of the reins. “Randle will do something rash if we surprise him while it’s still daylight. Under darkness we can take him off guard.”

  Climbing down from the saddle, Oshki questioned, “Why would he go up there?”

  “My guess is supplies.” Tethering her horse next to Miln’s, Melinda looked over her shoulder. “I hope he hasn’t hurt my sister. I haven’t seen any signs of struggle anywhere, so he must still have her—if we’re even following the right tracks.”

  “I’m sure it’s them.”

  She glanced at him and then removed her bonnet. “How are you so sure?”

  “There’s nothing else out here. It has to be Randle and your sister.”

  She nodded once. “Well, I hope he behaves himself up there.”

  Oshki joined them and stood rubbing his ass. “Why?”

  “The village is nothing more than an orphanage, a church, and a building where the orphans make baskets, jewelry, and clothing to peddle in the towns. It’s how they fund the home.”

  The Sky Streamer path location of the stolen ship leaped into Miln’s head. This had to be the same place their computer detected in Randle’s arrival zone.

  “How can such a vast area with few people produce so many orphans?” his partner asked.

  “Fevers, cholera, and other illnesses claim families, leaving children behind,” she answered sadly. “Often settlers crossing the plains lose so many kin they’re forced to leave children at the orphanage. It’s either that or watch them die of something that has killed everyone else. They don’t want to leave sons and daughters in the wilderness or take a chance their children will run into hostile Indians still in the area.”

  Oshki met his gaze. A strange light shone in his partner’s eyes. Fear stabbed Miln’s heart. He knew that look. His lover had just made up his mind about something very important.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Miln awoke and stretched. Hidden in an expansive cluster of buttonbushes overhung by a walnut tree, they’d slept undisturbed until full darkness descended. Other than sore buttocks, he felt well.

  “Are you awake?” Melinda spoke to his left.

  “Yes. It is time for us to go into the village. You stay here,” he ordered.

  He couldn’t see Melinda’s face in the darkness, but he heard her disgruntled sigh.

  “If something happens to you, then we are left dealing with your distraught sister,” he explained. “Besides, I have another plan I’ve been thinking about, too.”

  “What is it?” she questioned.

  “We need healthy people in the future,” he answered. “We’re trying to repopulate the planet, and since no one in this time wants the orphans—”

  “Ah, I see what you’re getting at.”

  “Good,” said Miln. “Now promise us you will stay here and not interfere.”

  “Oh…all right.”

  “Let us go, Oshki,” he ordered.

  Silence.

  “Oshki?” Dread settled in his gut. Quickly, he opened his satchel and pulled out the scanner. Using its light to guide him in the darkness, he saw only Melinda and the grass they’d mashed by sleeping on it. “Schizma!” He shut his eyes and wrestled with his temper. “By the Twelve Galaxies, I should just ship his ass back to Azutu and let the authorities deal with him!”

  Eyes nearly popping out of her head, Melinda asked, “What’s wrong?” She glanced around. “Oh, no. You don’t think he went up to the village, do you?”

  “No, he has left for good.” Standing, he threw the satchel strap over one shoulder.

  “Left? Do you mean he returned to your time?”

  “Possibly, but I doubt it. I figure Oshki is off in a different era having one of his tantrums.”

  “So….” In the blue backwash of the scanner, she stared at him quizzically. “Does that mean he’s abandoned you?”

  “It would appear that way.” So much for his promise that he’d be patient with him. He sighed and tamped down the hurt careening through him. “He probably wants to see if I will chase after him.”

  “What about my sister?”

  “I will not leave her at the mercy of Randle or anyone else. I agreed to help you, and by doing so, I can finish my assignment, too.”

  “But if your partner has your ship, how will you get home?”

  “I must find the one Randle stole when he escaped to this time.”

  “That might not be easy.”

  “Trust me,” he replied, “I am well aware of that fact.”

  She regarded him for a long moment. The sympathy in her eyes was almost more than he could bear.

  Finally, she said, “What Oshki has done to you by leaving you stranded in my time is just…cruel.”

  He said nothing, the pain was too great, but the idea he’d let a handsome face and beautiful body fool him into thinking he was in love shamed him. Maybe Oshki was right. It did seem as if he was always making sacrifices for others, but he couldn’t help it. He’d been raised to watch over others, and once he was old enough to work in the Azutuan Services, he’d been trained to do the same. It was who he was. The life of a warrior and head of security was full of sacrifices.

  “So may I go with you now?” she asked, abruptly changing the subject.

  “Yes.”

  With his mind a jumble of confusion, Miln led the way up the wagon trail, picking their way carefully over the shallow ruts and the loose rocks. Behind him, Melinda’s quiet footsteps followed. A strange sound ripped through the treetops startling him. He whirled with his Slicer poised to shoot, his attention now fully on his mission.

  “Take it easy,” she soothed. “It’s just a screech owl. Don’t you have owls in your time?”

  “I do not know. I have not had the chance to investigate much of future Earth.”

  He relaxed slightly and continued up the trail. Soon, feeble lights twinkled on a steppe. A cluster of small buildings with a large three-story structure on the far left end of the settlement looked more like a ghost town than an inhabited village. The faint whinny of a horse drifted down the slope to them, followed by two clipped barks from a dog.

  He said nothing as he approached the settlement. Thankfully, the female had enough sense to remain quiet, too. Just outside of the community, he studied the trail to determine whether it was safer to proceed by the road or to sneak up on the biggest building by way of the sparse trees surrounding the area. Having no idea where Randle might be, Miln decided to skirt the village and avoid the road, which lead straight into the center of the tiny town.

  “Stay right behind me,” he whispered. “That way you are not stepping on anything that will make suspicious noises.”

  Melinda nodded
in the moonlight, her eyes round with trepidation.

  Thankfully, many tall trees with long, bushy needles provided a thick bed to walk across that muffled their footsteps. He paused a few yards behind the largest structure. The only lights came from two rooms on the ground floor. He motioned for Melinda to sit still and then crept toward the building in a crouched stance. Reaching one of the windows where illumination stemmed, he quickly peeped inside.

  Randle sat by a hearth playing cards with an older woman, who appeared anxious, and two young men Miln guessed to be around twenty Earth years old. He spotted Charlotte and several children, varying in age, huddled in the far corner. At first it looked innocent enough, but as his attention settled on three youngsters writhing on the floor, he realized what Randle had done and the danger involved.

  He’d injected some of the kids with the Bone Eater virus. But why?

  His gaze landed on a door behind Randle. There had to be another way into the building without coming through the front entrance. He scouted the structure’s perimeter. There, on the left corner, was a wooden staircase that reached a door he guessed stood behind Randle’s table, and then ascended up to another door at the second floor as well as the third.

  An idea formed, and if he was lucky, it just might work.

  Turning, he motioned for Melinda to join him. She hurried across the small dirt yard in a bent-over position and knelt next to him.

  “Take these weapons,” he said quietly and handed her his two revolvers. “Stand over by that little structure.”

  “The outhouse?”

  “Do you shoot well?”

  “Yes, my father and then my brother taught me and my sister.”

  He nodded. “If you see Randle come out of this door, shoot him. It doesn’t matter if you kill him, but you do need to wound him badly enough it stops him from escaping.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I will take him by surprise.” Pointing, he indicated the next door above them. “Go hide.”

  She walked over to the outhouse and pressed herself against the one side where she couldn’t be seen.

  This situation wasn’t much different from the time they found the military base of a renegade Azutuan tribe who had been stealing food. As he climbed the stairs, stepping quietly so not to make any loud noises, he recalled how Oshki had distracted the leader by bursting through the front door of the hideout while he was positioned in the loft. Miln had taken their commander out with one clean shot to the back of his head.

  His thoughts shifted to his companion’s disappearance. As he gripped the wooden door handle, he realized he was more relieved the relationship was over than devastated by it. Yes, the abandonment hurt and his conscience prickled sharply at the fact he’d mistaken lust for love. However, he also knew Oshki was testing him, attempting to make him feel what he’d felt every time Miln had to put his duties first. However, he wasn’t running after his ex-mate. The young warrior needed to grow up, and Miln had people who depended on him to keep them alive.

  With resolve, he put his feelings aside and thought only of the victims who needed him.

  Cautiously, he tugged on the knob and discovered it hadn’t yet been locked for the night. He poked his head inside and found himself at the end of a long hall lined with more doors. An oil lantern glowed at either end. Careful not to bang the door, he slipped inside and shut it behind him. Each step down the hall sounded like thunder in his ears. The boards creaked and groaned beneath his weight, but as he traversed the corridor, no doors opened and no one appeared to investigate. Randle must have all the children and the staff downstairs where he could keep an eye on them. He paused, listening, and heard the structure settling. The ceiling above cracked, and somewhere higher he detected the pop of the roof releasing the day’s heat.

  Reassured, he pushed on until he reached the end of the hall where the illumination seemed brighter. There, he found what he hoped for. A small railed balcony led to another staircase and looked out over the ground floor. Miln edged to the end of the hall and peered out. The fiend still sat at the table playing cards.

  Faced with the choice of either killing the criminal or capturing him, Miln glanced over at the three youngsters groaning and twisting on the floor. For whatever insane reason, the fiend was determined to infect people here with the Bone Eater virus.

  A sudden thought struck him. The man didn’t want to take over the past. Instead, he planned to train the newly transformed Bone Eaters and take them into the future to attack the brothers and their mate.

  Furious, Miln narrowed his eyes. It was time to rid the world of this fiend.

  He lowered himself to the floor and crept across the boards to the railing, where he peered between the slender balusters.

  “It’s your turn!” Randle said as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

  With a shaking hand, the older woman sitting next to him placed a card on the tabletop.

  Randle backhanded her out of the chair. She landed in a heap against the hearthstone. A cry of pain ripped free of her.

  “You stupid, bitch! It’s spades, not hearts!”

  “How do you expect her to remember anything when she’s frightened silly?” Charlotte snapped from where she sat.

  “Don’t make me hurt you,” the scientist said, his attention moving to Melinda’s sister. “You’re lucky I find you attractive, or I would’ve killed you out on the plains. I have a use for you, if you don’t piss me off.”

  He restrained himself from acting rashly. One wrong move on his part and the degenerate could bolt, and Miln had no idea how well Melinda could shoot.

  He slowly positioned his hand between two of the spindles. Poised to shoot an energy pulse at Randle’s head, he halted as the door behind the man opened a few inches.

  Schizma! He clenched his teeth together, his fangs pressing hard against his inner lips. Why did females always have to be so impulsive?

  Chapter Fifteen

  One of the young boys noticed Melinda slipping slowly through the partially open door. His eyes widened. Quickly, Melinda placed her index finger against her lips, and the youngster ducked is head as if he was suddenly interested in the cards he held.

  Miln realized he was holding his breath. He released it and watched things play out, every muscle and tendon in his body tense. If she could shoot the fiend in the back of the head, it would be over. He’d bring the corpse back to Volund and Jaxxon as proof, securing his position as head of security of the first Earth Base. Venus and her unborn would be safe, and Randle wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again.

  One step, two steps, three. Melinda moved across the short space separating her from Randle. The older woman glanced up and then quickly looked back at the tabletop. The other young man did the same, tossing a card down on the pile. Randle sighed, pulled one from his hand, and threw it down, too.

  Another foot forward took Melinda closer. She kept her arm outstretched, hand gripping the revolver, hammer cocked.

  Tension brimmed in Miln. If she missed, she’d have to shoot again, so she better be lightning-quick. Without any noise, he slid his thumb over the sensor on his Slicer, so the energy ball it released would react faster, should she fail.

  Feeling as though he would explode from the stress, he watched her approach Randle until only a few inches separated the end of the gun’s barrel and the back of his head. The cluster of children stared in their direction, and Charlotte tugged two toddlers to her bosom, hiding their faces against her nightgown.

  Just as the shot should’ve cracked through the building, Randle whirled and slapped the revolver from Melinda’s hands. She cried out, her face a mask of shock. He grabbed her wrist and jerked her into his lap.

  “What do we have here? A vengeful little minx, eh?”

  “Let go!” she snarled.

  He gathered a handful of her hair into his free hand and pulled, hard. A grimace settled over her features.

  Seeing his chance, Miln knew shooting Randle wi
th the Slicer would scare Melinda senseless, but it was worth it if he could kill this monster.

  The fiend forced her head back until she was braced against his chest, her legs splayed to the side of his chair.

  “Let her go!” Charlotte yelled.

  He didn’t even look her way. Slowly, he licked up the side of her sister’s cheek. The look on Melinda’s face spoke volumes.

  “Now I have two toys to play with,” he said.

  Miln placed his thumb on the firing mechanism. A brilliant ball of energy zipped from the Slicer, clearing the heads of everyone huddled on the floor. The orb flatted out, spinning as it moved so fast the eye could barely see it, but Randle had heard the soft sizzling noise. He ducked, bashing Melinda’s forehead against the table edge. The Slicer pulse missed his head, but it connected lower. Blood spurted from the rounded part of his shoulder, now gone. Charred bones, severed arteries and muscles prompted gasps and sickened cries from around the room. Shrieking profanities, Randle leaped to his feet. In a rage, he snatched up the revolver with his good hand and fired two shots into Melinda’s back.

  “No!” The scream burst from Charlotte. She surged out of the huddled children, but halted the instant he whirled on her with the weapon.

  Blood coursed down his useless arm and spurted from the wound in arcs of crimson. Although he was mortally wounded, Miln still had to finish him off.

  Scrambling to his feet, he knew he had to distract Randle so he wouldn’t inadvertently kill Charlotte when Miln shot him again. He sighted the Slicer on him a second time.

  “You,” he snapped. “Up here!”

  Wobbling as if drunk, Randle jerked his head in his direction. The shock of both the wound and the anger of having been found turned his eyes dark. “Son of a bitch!”

  He fired again. The instant the sizzle began, the flattened orb had already severed Randle’s head from his shoulders. Horrified screams rent the room.

  “Melinda!” Charlotte flew across the big chamber and rolled her sister over.

  With the sounds of crying youngsters assailing his ears, he descended to the ground floor and knelt next to Melinda. He fished his scanner out of his pack and passed it over her. “She’s still alive, barely.”